Archive - Apr 9, 2007
For Vicki and John
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/09/2007 - 21:23For all of you that know Vicki Cosgrove and haven’t heard, she and her husband are facing difficult times and prayers and financial support are sorely needed. Please read this diary on DailyKos, recommend it, pass it on to your friends and do what you can to help.
Beyond that, please think about lighting a candle for Vicki and John.
(Cross posted at Howard Empowered People)
Seeking clearer political thinking and speaking
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/09/2007 - 20:03Back in February, I received an advanced copy of Jeffrey Feldman’s book, Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (And Win Elections). I started reading it and really enjoyed it. I wanted to find the best time to sit down and write up my review.
In March, I wrote a blog post about how the Edwards family is dealing with Elizabeth’s cancer. The blog post went up a few hours before the news conference where they announced that Sen. Edwards was staying in the race, despite the return of Elizabeth’s cancer. I started off by talking about Feldman’s book.
It is a great book that I hope anyone interested in politics spends some time reading.
We would do well to spend more time reading speeches of former leaders. The first speech analyzed is George Washington’s first inaugural address. He spoke about being called by “the voice of my country”. Feldman talks about the “humble servant” frame, of great leaders responding to a call by the country and a recognition that they it takes much more than just a great leader to solve our country’s problems, it takes the strength of the American people.
Inviting the public into the newsroom
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/09/2007 - 16:07On Saturday, April 7th, the New England News Forum held its first conference in Lowell Massachusetts. After registration, coffee and initial networking, the participants headed off to several different breakout sessions. The first session I attended was “Letting the Public into the newsroom: Joining, shaping the conversation.”
The panel was made up of Steve Fox, who is working with newassignment.net, Rory O’Connor and Mike LaBonte who are hosts on NewsTrust and Jon Greenberg of New Hampshire Public Radio.
I’ve been a volunteer host on NewsTrust for quite a while and have been doing some paid freelance programming for them, so I’m well acquainted with NewsTrust. I had a wonderful discussion with Jon about what NHPR is setting up for covering the New Hampshire primary during the networking prior to the session, and while I hadn’t met Steve Fox before, I’ve been following newassignment.net very closely. I’ve written about it on my blog, in particular about their planned collaboration with Huffington Post.
The session started off by going around the room and everyone introducing themselves. There were editors, producers, professors, and wonderfully wise group in the audience, the sort of audience that is a good reminder of why it is so important to invite the public into the newsroom.
During the introductions, Arnie Arnesen, of Political Chowder framed the discussion very nicely with the question, “How to raise the level of curiosity in our public discourse?” Jon Greenberg spoke to this a little in terms of touching on how news is relevant to the lives of the readers.
